A late comeback attempt by the women's lacrosse team was not enough to avoid a one-goal loss to the Navy Midshipmen on the road Tuesday afternoon, 13-12.
From the opening face-off, Navy controlled the match. An 8-0 scoring run by the Midshipmen in the first 22 minutes of the game left the Eagles in a large hole.
AU was able to get on the scoreboard for the first time on a tally by Leslie Fischer at the 8:57 mark of the first half to cut Navy's lead to 8-1.
Brit Ferguson added a goal of her own less than 20 seconds later to shave the deficit to 8-2, but the Eagles then found themselves down seven entering halftime.
AU continued the positive momentum coming into the second half of play, scoring on back-to-back goals by Amanda Makoid and Jackie Lane to put the score at 9-4 with over 27 minutes to play.
Navy responded with two goals of their own to push their lead back to 11-4, but the Eagles went on a scoring run to put themselves back in the game. Scoring five straight goals in eight minutes, the Eagles cut the lead from nine goals to two at 11-9 with the clock reading 16:17 to play. Ferguson scored her second goal of the match during this stretch, while Lauren Aksionoff, Kira Sonberg, Brittany Finnegan and Anne-Marie Person all scored their firsts of the game.
Once again, the Midshipmen responded to AU's offensive outburst, scoring two more goals to put the lead back to 13-9 with 11:32 to go. The Eagles had one final scoring run, scoring three times in the final 10 minutes, but it was not enough to prevent the Midshipmen from escaping with a 13-12 victory.
Navy's Meg Decker and Erin Rawlick were the game-high scorers with four goals apiece, while Aksionoff, Ferguson and Fischer each scored twice for the Eagles.
AU looks to get back on track when they play at Virginia Tech on Saturday at 1 p.m.
